Who he is:
Australia’s Forrest Gump (for his running qualities, not his IQ)
Where you’ve heard of him:
Maybe in the Huffington Post but you most likely haven’t.
Pat Farmer, a 48-year old marathon veteran from Australia, is aiming for way more than 26 miles—he’s running from the North Pole to the South Pole for charity.
Farmer is taking on the 13,000 miles—which he is calling “the greatest challenge of my life”—in an effort to raise $100 million for the Red Cross and raise public awareness about water sanitation, a cause he took on during his time volunteering in Peru, Nepal, Egypt and Thailand.
“I’ve seen firsthand what the real needs of poverty-stricken people are, and I keep coming back to the same thing—without water there is no life,” he said. “’I saw children covered with needle stick injuries in a dump, trying to break syringes down to sell the metal inside for bottles of water.”
The run itself is expected to take 11 months and take Farmer through Canada, the United States, Mexico, and ten South American countries. He’s expected to be airlifted twice. The entire journey will be broadcast live.
While Farmer’s trip could be considered a media stunt, he is attempting something most men wouldn’t be able to do. And he’s doing it for a specific, worthy cause.
That sounds good to me.